The invention relates to a trampoline and a method for monitoring the jumps performed on a trampoline.
Trampolines of this type are used in diverse applications both in the area of recreational activities and in the area of competition.
When used in the area of competition, jumps that an athlete carries out on the trampoline are evaluated in a familiar way by judges. An important evaluation criterion in connection with this is the flight time of a jump of the athlete, i.e. a determination has to be made as precisely and objectively as possible as to the length of time an athlete remains in the air after becoming airborne during a jump on the trampoline. This determination of the flight time can only be estimated in an imprecise way by judges. The use of light barriers as measurement systems that are installed under the plane of the jumping mats is known to obtain more reliable values for the flight times. The light barriers then operate in such a way that their beam path is not interrupted when the trampoline is not used or the respective athlete has just become airborne from the jumping mat during a jump on the trampoline. On the other hand, the beam path is interrupted when the athlete lands on the jumping mat, causing a downward bulge, and the jumping mat gets in the beam path of the light beams.
A drawback in connection with this is that the light barriers can be interrupted once again via a subsequent oscillation of the jumping mat right when the athlete becomes airborne, which can distort the measurement results for the flight time.
A further drawback results because the measurement system with the light barriers is limited to the determination of flight times.